What legal thing are you addicted to?

I think the generality of the word 'thing' makes it difficult to really answer a specific thing, because there are several possible things that I could list, and sometimes they just feel more like a norm than any kind of addiction: Food, sleep (or even lack of), games, Internet, etc.

For instance, it's sometimes difficult to evaluate whether something is an addiction or not, mainly because psychology is pseudo-science and the human brain is complex. For instance, I could be on the Internet all day, but how do you even consider if that's just a regular norm or an irrational compulsion?

The other problem is that addiction could reference more than one thing, so it could also be a chain reaction. For instance, if I play video games all day, that could also imply that I also stay up all night, so that specific scenario would encompass two things instead of one.

And addiction (in a general sense) doesn't really have a clear classification, because you could pick any spot on a scale ranging from dependency to tolerance, and you could have different levels of dependency and tolerance for different things. And maybe you could argue that addiction is the inability to maintain tolerance, but it wouldn't make sense for some things that humans actually depend on such as water.

To me, addiction in a general sense is anything viewed outside of the norm, but what's "outside of the norm" varies from person to person. Addiction generally has the connotation of compulsion that brings out negative side effects, so you probably won't ever hear about people being addicted to vegetables, but you might hear about people being addicted to sugary food, since sugary foods could deteriorate your health.

I just don't think addiction has a clear meaning unless it's tied to something more specific, especially if it references habits that have a negative impact, and in a lot of cases, illegal things do fit the category more just because of the degree of consequences. For the most part, I try to maintain what I personally think is a normal balance, but people might view those things differently than I do. To me, it's sort of more like a philosophical question.

 

I am addicted to energy drinks and playing video games

 

For some people, playing video games isn't an addiction, but more of a lifestyle or a hobby. Just depends on how it affects you since addiction is more about the connotations (e.g. should you be doing homework instead of playing video games?), but what was once perceived as an addiction years ago is pretty much now a norm in today's society.

But I think energy drinks have been a persistent problem, especially for people that drink them everyday (particularly to stay up all night). It's not bad to drink energy drinks on certain occasions, but it's generally bad for your health when you drink them everyday because you start having health issues like arrhythmia, high blood pressure, sleep issues, etc. Personally, I would limit my energy drink consumption to at least once a week, or try to avoid it as much as possible. I think the main source of the problem is the amount of caffeine and sugar that companies put in energy drinks. It's generally better to find better alternatives to drinks; and if you don't like a drink, for instance, the taste of water, maybe one thing to consider is trying out flavored water.